New report: Hostage rescue mission aborted because Obama was on vacation

During his recent Asian tour into Laos, President Obama held a town hall meeting with young Laotians – seriously, why? — and he made disparaging comments about Americans, referring to us as “lazy.” Obama said one of the things he’s working against is the laziness of Americans that makes us believe we don’t need to study and learn about other countries and their cultures. Well, Mr. President, you need to worry about making really stupid statements that will come back to haunt you — and karma came quickly in this case.

Let’s set up the story…

As reported by Ami News Wire, “Under the dim light of a quarter moon, a U.S. special operations team skimmed through the night skies above eastern Afghanistan, awaiting final mission approval from President Barrack Obama while speeding toward the objective.

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The commandos were fast on their way last month to rescue two western hostages held by hostile gunmen. As the raiders approached their target — a makeshift prison compound — they suddenly were ordered to stand down.

The president, who was vacationing on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, did not have time to give the required final go-ahead. He wanted 24 hours to consider the rescue. A day later, Obama approved the mission. The commandos relaunched. This time, they reached the target — only to find the hostages had been moved four hours prior, said sources with direct knowledge of events.

“We raised hell in that compound,” said a security staffer with knowledge of the mission. “We knocked down walls and killed bad guys.” Seven hostile combatants were killed and one injured, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed to American Media Institute.

Among its many duties, CENTCOM is the Pentagon’s Unified Combatant Command in charge of operations in Afghanistan. “No civilians were killed or harmed,” said Col. John J. Thomas, the CENTCOM director of public affairs. “No U.S. forces were killed or hurt.”

The missions took place Aug. 10 and 11, in Afghanistan, Thomas confirmed. He did not address operational details of the rescue missions; but AMI spoke to sources who provided details, some of which CENTCOM confirmed.”

And Fox News had reported, “U.S. special operations forces mounted an unsuccessful mission to rescue two American University of Afghanistan professors kidnapped in Kabul last month — after an earlier mission was aborted when the White House withheld its approval — defense officials with knowledge of the incident told Fox News. Fox News is told the operation, which took place a few days after their Aug. 7 kidnapping, killed seven enemy fighters. But when the firefight ended, there was no sign of the hostages. One of the hostages is American; the other is Australian.

It was not the first attempt by the U.S. military to rescue the two professors. The first mission was aborted when the American rescue force could not obtain White House approval for the mission amid concerns about the intelligence, according to three defense officials.

They were in the air heading to the target area at the time and had to return to their base in Afghanistan. When approval was granted by President Obama the next day, the American assault force headed back to the area where they believed the two hostages were being held and engaged an enemy force at a compound believed to contain the hostages.

“It didn’t go the way it was supposed to go,” said one official. The operation took place near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. It is not immediately clear if the hostages were ever inside the compound or moved before the second rescue attempt could take place, according to one official.

The initial mission was cancelled because the intelligence was not completely firm and there was not consensus among different government agencies, which prevented the White House from granting approval, one official told Fox News. “They turned back that first night because they didn’t have authority. They could have gone without permission if they thought hostages’ lives were in imminent danger,” according to one official.”

The two civilian hostages are English teachers: United States citizen Kevin King and Australian citizen Timothy Weeks, who had been taken by the Taliban from the American University in Kabul. It was the same American University that was later the target of a direct action Taliban terror attack.

So, here we have Barack Obama condemning the American people as “lazy” before a gathering of Laotians, while he was just too busy enjoying vacation to “approve” the rescue operation of an American and an Australian…doggone, we just don’t want to disturb Little Lord Fauntleroy.

Now, here are some “teachable moments.” Actionable HUMINT (human intelligence) is just that, actionable, and fleeting and the last thing you need is a delayed response time. So, I must ask, why was it necessary to have the approval of the president to conduct a hostage rescue operation? This represents the type of micromanagement a la Lyndon Johnson who approved bombing targets in Vietnam — as well as Jimmy Carter, who micromanaged Desert One, the Iranian hostage rescue mission. What are the standing rules of engagement for our Special Operators in Afghanistan? As a matter of fact, in the combat theaters of operations, period? Can it be that Barack Obama — who doesn’t want to answer to deaths of troops like Army Delta Force MSG Wheeler or US Navy SEAL PO2 Keating IV – is willing to allow the enemy to operate freely so he can appear to be doing something while actually just lazily playing golf, refusing to make a decision?

Earlier this week, Donald Trump took an undeserved beating after he said Barack Obama has “reduced senior leaders of our military to rubble.” We can quibble over his use of language, but his intent is valid.

Imagine the morale of those U.S. Special Operators who were ready to go, and we told to “stand down” because, well, Obama just couldn’t be bothered. This reminds us of the boy who went to bed while Americans were under siege in Benghazi because he had to catch a plane the next day for a political fundraiser in Las Vegas. You know, no need for his highness to lose beauty rest while Americans were fighting for their lives — then again, according to hacked emails from Nancy Pelosi, Benghazi was just a conspiracy theory — and what difference at this point does it make anyway?

It makes a huge difference to those leaders in Afghanistan and those Special Operators who now know why they weren’t given the green light. And regardless, when our perfumed prince of a president did give his permission, they still went and exposed themselves to the enemy. They kicked the enemy’s butt, but the rescue operation was unsuccessful, to no avail. Reduced to rubble, sure, but the real description is demoralizing.

Imagine what it must be like for the families of Kevin King and Timothy Weeks who now know their loved ones could have been successfully rescued, except Obama was just too lazy…after all he was relaxing on vacation. Those families have been reduced to more tears, along with being completely demoralized. Perhaps Obama can find another $400 million in laundered cash for their loved ones?

In my assessment, I actually don’t think anyone ever told Obama. Just as it was with Benghazi, my belief is that our modern day Rasputin, Valerie Jarrett, made the decision — enabling Barack Obama to claim plausible deniability. I wonder, will anyone question White House spokesperson Josh Earnest on the revelation? To me, this episode is the pure unadulterated definition of dereliction of duty. If King or Weeks tragically lose their lives, there is one person accountable, responsible, and culpable — Barack Obama. Those special operators should have had the green light from the commander on the ground to launch that rescue operation. And you can bet this had been successful Obama would have been the first one to claim…”under my direction and order I approved US Special Operations forces conducted an operation to rescue the American and Australian hostages in Afghanistan from the Taliban.” You know, like he did with the operation that killed Osama bin Laden — remember those staged pictures of Obama, Biden, Clinton, and Panetta all watching the live feed?

Hmm, I seem to recall there was an unarmed drone up over Benghazi providing a live feed then as well — why was there no one in the situation room, no staged pictures? And why were there no pictures of Obama on vacay while these brave Special Operators were downrange ready to conduct a hostage rescue operation?

This folks is damning, despicable, and disgusting to the highest degree. And so it will be on Sunday, Barack Obama will come out and deliver some worthless canned speech about the 15th anniversary of 9-11 after he shirked his duty as commander in chief. The obvious deduction from this is that Obama does not trust the generals. He has reduced them to irrelevance for his political purposes — it appears that he believes he knows better. Wonder why no one is asking him that line of inquiry?

To the families of Professors King and Weeks, know that if I were the SecDef, your loved ones would have been rescued, and I would have informed the president upon their securing. Reason being, I know what it means to trust the combat warrior on the ground, not micromanaging them, and what actionable intelligence means. There’s a difference between taking a chance, and identifying risks that can be mitigated. When Americans are taken hostage, we would not send cash…we would send an ass whipping, and get our folks.

Meet Allen West

Allen West was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia in the same neighborhood where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once preached. He is the third of four generations of military servicemen in his family.

During his 22 year career in the United States Army, Lieutenant Colonel West served in several combat zones: in Operation Desert Storm, in Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he was a Battalion Commander in the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, and later in Afghanistan.